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Chapter 17
Manifest Destiny and
Its Legacy, 1841–1848
I. The Accession of “Tyler Too”
• Whig party:
– Wm. H. Harrison, a Whig, was elected in 1841
and John Tyler elected Vice-President
• Cabinet: Secretary of State—Daniel Webster
• Henry Clay spokesman in the Senate, the uncrowned
king of the Whigs.
– Harrison contacted pneumonia and died after
only four months in office
• By far the shortest administration in American history
but longest inaugural address.
I. The Accession of “Tyler Too”
(cont.)
• John Tyler:
• The “Tyler too” party of the Whig ticket, now claimed
the spotlight
• He was stubbornly attached to principle
• Resigned early from the Senate, rather than accept
distasteful instructions form the Virginia legislature
• Forsook the Jacksonian Democrats for the Whigs
• His enemies accused him of being a Democrat in
Whig clothing
• Was at odds with the majority of his adoptive Whigs
I. The Accession of “Tyler Too”
(cont.)
• Whig party platform:
– Pro-bank, pro-protective tariff, and pro-internal
improvements.
• “Tyler too” rhymed with “Tippecanoe,” but
there the harmony ended.
• President Harrison, the Whig, served for only
4 weeks, whereas Tyler, the ex-Democrat
who was still largely a Democrat at heart,
served for 204 weeks.
II. John Tyler: A President Without a
Party
• Whigs platform:
• It outlined a strongly nationalist program
• Financial reform came first:
– The Whig Congress passed a law ending the independent
treasury system
– President Tyler, disarmingly agreeable, signed it
– Clay drove though Congress a bill for a “Fiscal Bank” which
would create a new Bank of the United States
– Clay—the “Great Compromiser”—would have done well to
conciliate Tyler
II. John Tyler: A President Without
a Party (cont.)
– Tyler veto the bill on both practical and constitutional
grounds
– The Whig leaders tried again, passing another bill providing
for a “Fiscal Corporation”
– Tyler again vetoed the offensive substitute
– The Democrats were jubilant
• Whig extremists condemned Tyler as “His Accidency”
and “Executive Ass”
– He was formally expelled from his party
– His entire cabinet resigned in a body, except Secretary of
State Webster, who was then in the midst of delicate
negotiations with England.
II. John Tyler: A President Without
a Party (cont.)
• Proposed Whig tariff bill:
– Tyler vetoed the bill
– Because he saw the Whig scheme for a distribution among
the states of revenue from the sale of public lands in the
West
– He could see no point of squandering federal money.
• Chastened Clayites redrafted their tariff bill:
– They chopped out the offensive dollar-distribution scheme
– Pushed down the rates to about the moderately protective
level of 1832—roughly 32% on dutiable goods
– Tyler reluctantly signed the Tariff of 1842
III. A War of Words with Britain
• Anti-British passions:
• At the bottom lay the bitter, red-coated memories of
the two Anglo-American wars
• The pro-British Federalists had died out
• British travels wrote negatively about American
customs in their travel books
• These writings touched off the “Third War with
England”
• Fortunately this British-American war was fought on
paper broadsides, and only ink was spilled.
III. A War of Words with Britain
(cont.)
– America a borrowing nation:
• Expensive canals to dig and railroads to build
• Britain, with overflowing coffers, was a lending nation
• The panic of 1837 and several states defaulted on
their bonds or repudiated them altogether
– 1837—a short-lived insurrection erupted in
Canada
• Hot-blooded Americans furnished military supplies or
volunteered for armed service
• The Washington regime tried to hold its neutrality
III. A War of Words with Britain
(cont.)
• Again it could not enforce unpopular laws in the face
of popular opposition.
• A provocative incident on the Canadian frontier
brought passions to a boil in 1837:
– An American steamer, Caroline, was carrying supplies to the
insurgents across the Niagara River
– It was attacked by the British and set on fire
– The craft sank short of the plunge, only one American was
killed.
• This unlawful invasion of American soil had alarming
aftermaths.
III. A War of Words with Britain
(cont.)
– In 1840 a man, McLeod, who confessed to being involved in
the Carolina raid, was arrested and indicted for murder
– The London Foreign Office made clear that his execution
would mean war
– Fortunately, McLeod was freed after establishing an alibi
– Tensions were renewed in 1841 when British officials in the
Bahamas offered asylum to 130 Virginian slaves who had
rebelled and captured the American ship Creole.
– Britain had abolished slavery within the empire in 1833,
raising southern fears that its Caribbean possessions would
become Canada-like havens for escaped slaves.
p362
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
• The Maine boundary dispute:
– The St. Lawrence River is icebound several
months of the year:
• As a defensive precaution the British wanted to build
a road westward from the seaport Halifax to Quebec
• The road would go though disputed territory claimed
by Maine
• The Aroostook War threatened to widen the dispute
into a full-dress shooting war.
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
(cont.)
– Britain sent to Washington a nonprofessional
diplomat, Lord Ashburton, who established
cordial relations with Secretary Webster
• They finally agreed to compromise on the Maine
boundary (see Map 17.1)
• A split-the-difference arrangement, the Americans
retained some 7,000 square miles of the 12,000
square miles of the wilderness in dispute
• Britain got less land but won the desired HalifaxQuebec route.
IV. Manipulating the Maine Maps
(cont.)
• The Caroline affair was patched up by an exchange of
diplomatic notes
• Bonus sneaked in small print:
– The British, in adjusting the U.S.-Canadian boundary farther
West, surrendered 6,500 square miles
– The area was later found to contain the priceless Mesabi
iron ore of Minnesota.
Map 17-1 p363
V. The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone
• Texas’s precarious existence:
– Mexico:
• refused to recognize Texas’s independence
• regarded the Lone Star Republic as a province in
revolt to be reconquered in the future
• Mexican officials threatened war if the American
eagle ever gather the fledgling republic under its
protective wings.
V. The Lone Star of Texas Shines
Alone (cont.)
– Texas was forced to maintain a costly military
establishment:
• Threatened by Mexico, Texas was driven into open
negotiations with Britain and France to secure a
defensive shield of a protectorate
• In 1839 and 1840, the Texans concluded a treaty with
France, Holland, and Belgium.
– Britain was interested in an independent Texas
• Texas would serve as a check for Americans moving
South, possibly into British territory
V. The Lone Star of Texas Shines
Alone (cont.)
• Dangers threatened from other foreigners:
– British abolitionists were busily intriguing for a
foothold in Texas
– British merchants regarded Texas as a potentially
important free-trade area—an offset to the
tariff-walled United States
– British manufacturers perceived the Texas plains
for great cotton-producing in the future relieving
Britain of chronic dependence on American fiber.
p364
VI. The Belated Texas Nuptials
– Texas became a leading issue in the 1844
presidential campaign:
• The foes of expansion assailed annexation
• Southern hotheads cried, “Texas or Disunion”
• The pro-expansion Democrats under James K. Polk
finally triumphed over the Whigs
• Lame duck president Tyler interpreted the narrow
Democratic victory as a “mandate” to acquire Texas.
• Tyler deserves credit for shepherding Texas into the
fold.
VI. The Belated Texas Nuptials
(cont.)
• Tyler despaired of securing the needed 2/3 vote for a
treaty in the Senate
• He arranged for annexation by a joint resolution
• After a spirited debate, the resolution passed in 1845
and Texas was formally invited to become the 28th
star on the American flag
• Mexico angrily charged that the Americans had
despoiled it of Texas
• Mexico left the Texans dangling by denying their right
to dispose of themselves as they chose
VI. The Belated Texas Nuptials
(cont.)
– By 1845 the Lone Star Republic had become a
danger spot:
• Inviting foreign intrigue that menaced the American
people
• The continued existence of Texas as an independent
nation threatened to involve the United States in
wars
• The United States can hardly be accused of haste in
achieving annexation.
VII. Oregon Fever Populates Oregon
• Oregon Country:
– Geography
• From the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, north of
California to the line of 54-40, the present southern
tip of Alaska panhandle
• This land was claimed at one time or another by:
Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States
• Two claimants dropped out of the scramble:
– Spain through the Florida Treaty of 1819
– Russia retreated to the 54-40 line by treaties of 1824 and
1825.
VII. Oregon Fever Populates
Oregon (cont.)
– British claims to Oregon were strong:
• Especially the portion north of the Columbia River
• They were based on:
–
–
–
–
Prior discovery and exploration
Treaty rights
Actual occupation
Colonizing agency Hudson’s Bay Company
– American claims to Oregon:
• To exploration and occupation
• Captain Robert Gray (1792) had stumbled on the
Columbia River, which he named after his ship
III. Oregon Fever Populates
Oregon (cont.)
• The famed Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806
• Presence of missionaries and other settlers, some of
whom reached the grassy Willamette River valley
– These men and women of God, in saving the soul of the
Indians, were instrumental in saving the soil of Oregon for
the United States
– They stimulated interest in a faraway domain that countless
Americans had earlier assumed would not be settled for
centuries.
• Scattered Americans and British pioneers continued
to live peacefully side by side.
III. Oregon Fever Populates
Oregon (cont.)
– The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 (see pp.
239-240):
• The United States sought to divide at the forty-ninth
parallel
• The British wanted the Columbia River as the line
• A scheme for peaceful “joint occupation” was
adopted, pending future settlement
• The handful of Americans in the Willamette Valley
was multiplied in the early 1840s by the “Oregon
fever”
III. Oregon Fever Populates
Oregon (cont.)
• Over the 2,000 mile Oregon Trail (1846) five thousand
Americans had settled south of the Columbia River
• The British could only muster seven hundred north of
the Columbia River
– Actually only a relatively small segment was in
controversy by 1845:
– The Americans offered the forty-ninth parallel
– The British repeated offering the line of the Columbia River
– The whole issue was now tossed into the presidential
election of 1844, where it became overshadowed by the
question of annexing Texas.
p365
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest
Destiny
• The two major parties nominated their
presidential standard-bearers in May 1844:
– Henry Clay chosen by the Whigs at Baltimore
– James K. Polk of Tennessee chosen by the
Democrats—America’s first “dark horse”
– The campaign was an expression of Manifest
Destiny:
– A sense of mission, believing that Almighty God had
“manifestly” destined the American people for a
hemisphere career…(see page 366).
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest
Destiny (cont.)
– Expansionist Democrats:
• Strongly swayed by Manifest Destiny
• Their platform: “Reannexation of Texas” and
“Reoccupation of Oregon”-all the way to 54-40
• “All of Oregon or None” (The slogan “Fifty-four forty
or fight” was not coined until two years later)
• They condemned Clay as a “corrupt bargainer,” a
dissolute character, and a slaveowner.
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest
Destiny (cont.)
– The Whigs:
• They countered with their own slogans
• They spread the lie:
– that a gang of Tennessee slaves had been on their way to a
southern market branded with the initials J.K.P. (James K.
Polk)
• Clay “straddled” the crucial issue of Texas:
– He personally favored annexing slaveholding Texas (an
appeal to the South); he also favored postponement (an
appeal to the North).
VIII. A Mandate (?) for Manifest
Destiny (cont.)
• Election results:
• “Dark Horse” Polk nipped Clay 170 to 105 votes in the
Electoral College
• 1,338,464 to 1,300,097 in the popular vote
• Clay would have won if he had not lost New York
State by a scant 5,000 votes:
– There the tiny antislavery Liberty Party absorbed nearly
16,000 votes that would have gone to Clay.
• The Democrats proclaimed they received a mandate
from the voters to take Texas.
p366
p367
IX. Polk the Purposeful
• President James K. Polk:
• Was not an impressive figure
• His burden increased by his unwillingness to delegate
authority
• Methodical and hard-working but not brilliant
• He was shrewd, narrow-minded, conscientious, and
persistent
• He developed a four-point program and with
remarkable success achieved it completely in less
than four years.
IX. Polk the Purposeful
(cont.)
• Polk’s four-point program:
– To lower the tariff
• Secretary of the Treasure, Robert J. Walker, devised a
tariff-for-revenue bill that reduced the average rates
of the Tariff of 1842 from 32% to 25%
• With strong support of low-tariff southerners, the
Walker Tariff bill made it through Congress
• Complaints came from the middle states and New
England (see Table 17.1)
• The Bill proved to be an excellent revenue producer.
IX. Polk the Purposeful
(cont.)
– The restoration of the independent treasury:
• Unceremoniously dropped by the Whigs in 1841
• Pro-bank Whigs in Congress raised a storm of
opposition, but victory at last rewarded the
president’s effort in 1846.
– The third and fourth points on Polk’s “must list”
were the acquisition of California and the
settlement of the Oregon dispute (see Map 17.2)
IX. Polk the Purposeful
(cont.)
• Settlement of the Oregon dispute:
• “Reoccupation” of the “whole” had been promised to
northern Democrats in 1844 campaign
• Southern Democrats, once Texas was annexed, cooled
off
• Polk’s feeling bound by the three offers of his
predecessor to London, proposed the compromise
line of 49.
• British anti-expansionists were now persuaded that
the Columbia River was not the St. Lawrence.
• Britain in 1846 proposed the line of 49.
IX. Polk the Purposeful
(cont.)
• Polk threw the decision to the Senate
• They speedily accepted the offer and approved the
subsequent treaty
• Satisfaction with the Oregon settlement among
Americans was not unanimous.
• So, Polk, despite all the campaign bluster, got neither
“fifty-four forty” nor a fight.
• But he did get something that in the long run was
better: a reasonable compromise without a rifle being
raised.
Table 17-1 p368
Map 17-2 p368
X. Misunderstandings with Mexico
– Faraway California was another worry for Polk:
• Diverse population: Spanish Mexicans, Indians, “some
foreigners” and Americans
• Given time these transplant Americans might bring
California into the Union
• Polk was eager to buy from Mexico
• But the United States had some $3 million claim to
American citizens and their property
• A more serious contention was Texas
• Deadlock with Mexico over Texas’s boundaries.
X. Misunderstandings with Mexico
(cont.)
• Texas wanted the Rio Grande River boundary but
Mexico only wanted the Nueces River boundary
• Polk was careful to keep American troops out of the
no-man’s-land
– California continued to cause Polk anxiety:
• Rumors—British wanted to buy or seize California
• A grab the Americans could not tolerate under the
Monroe Doctrine
• Polk dispatched John Slidell to Mexico City (1845):
– To offer $25 million for California and territory to the east
– Mexico would not even permit Slidell to present his case
p369
XI. American Blood on American (?)
Soil
• Polk was ready to take action:
– January 13, 1846 he ordered 4000 men:
• Under General Zachary Taylor to march from Nueces
River to the Rio Grande hoping for a clash
• When nothing happened he informed his cabinet
(May 9, 1846) that he proposed to declare war
– Unpaid claims
– Slidell’s rejection
• New of bloodshed arrived on the same night
• Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and met
Taylor.
XI. American Blood on American
(?) Soil (cont.)
– Polk sent a vigorous war message to Congress:
• Congress overwhelmingly voted for war
• In his message to Congress, Polk was making
history—not writing it
• Spot resolution—by Abraham Lincoln demanding
information as to the precise “spot” on American soil
where American blood had been shed.
– Did Polk provoke war?
• California was imperative in his program
• Mexico would not see it at any price
XI. American Blood on American
(?) Soil (cont.)
• Polk wanted California by any means, so he pushed
the quarrel to a bloody showdown
• Both sides were spoiling for a fight
• Both sides were fired by moral indignation
• The Mexican people could fight with the flaming
sword of righteousness
• Many earnest Americans sincerely believed that
Mexico was the aggressor.
XII. The Mastering of Mexico
• Polk wanted Mexico—not war:
– When war came:
• he wanted to fight on a limit scale and then pull out
when he captured the prize
• Santa Anna convinced Polk that he would sell out his
country, then drove his countrymen to a desperate
defense of their soil
XIII. The Mastering of Mexico
(cont.)
• American operation in the Southwest and
California were completely successful (see
Map 17.3):
– Both General Stephen W. Kearny and Captain
John C. Frémont had success in the West
– Frémont collated with American naval officers
and local Americans who hoisted the banner of
short-lived California Bear Flag Republic.
XIII. The Mastering of Mexico
(cont.)
– General Zachery Taylor fought the Mexicans in
several successful battles and then reached
Buena Vista:
•
•
•
•
Here he captured 20,000 troops under Santa Anna
The Mexicans were finally conquered
Zachery Taylor became the “Hero of Buena Vista.”
Now he called for a crushing blow at the enemy’s
vitals—Mexico City
• Taylor, however, could not win decisively in the
semideserts of northern Mexico.
XIII. The Mastering of Mexico
(cont.)
• General Winfield Scott succeeded in battling
his way up to Mexico City by Sept., 1847
– One of the most brilliant campaigns in American
annals:
• He proved to be the most distinguished general
produced by his country between the American
Revolution and the Civil War.
Map 17-3 p371
XIII. Fighting Mexico for Peace
• Scott and chief clerk of the State Department
Nicholas P. Trist arranged:
– For an armistice with Santa Anna
• At a cost of $10,000
– Polk called Trist home, but he wrote a 65 page
letter explaining why he could not come home
– Trist signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on
February 2, 1848, forwarded it to Washington.
XIII. Fighting Mexico for Peace
(cont.)
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo:
•
•
•
•
Confirmed the American title to Texas
Yielded the enormous area stretching to Oregon,
the ocean, embracing California
The total expanse was about ½ of Mexico
The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the
land and to assume the claims of its citizen against
Mexico in the amount of $3,250,000
– (see “Makers of America: the Californios” pp.
374-375.)
XIII. Fight Mexico for Peace
(cont.)
• Polk submitted the treaty to the Senate:
– The antislavery Whigs in Congress—dubbed
“Mexican Whigs” or “Conscience Whigs”—
denounced the “damnable war”.
– Another peril impended:
• A swelling group of expansionists were clamoring for
all of Mexico
• If America had seized it, she would have been saddled
with an expensive and vexatious policing problem.
XIII. Fight Mexico for Peace
(cont.)
• Victors rarely pay an indemnity:
– Polk arranged to pay $18,250,000 after winning
– Critics say Americans were pricked by guilty
consciences
– Apologists pointed proudly to the “Anglo-Saxon
spirit of fair play”
p372
XIV. Profit and Loss in Mexico
• As wars go, the Mexican War was a small
one:
– It cost 13,000 American lives, most taken by
disease
– The fruits of the fighting were enormous:
• America’s total expanse was increased by 1/3
• It proved to be the blood-spattered schoolroom of
the Civil War
• The campaigns provided priceless experience
• The work of the navy was valuable in placing a
blockade around Mexican ports.
XIV. Profit and Loss in Mexico
(cont.)
• The Marine Corps won new laurels and to this day
sings in its stirring hymn about the “Halls of
Montezuma.”
• The army waged war without defeat and without a
major blunder
• Opposing armies emerged with increased respect for
each other
• Mexicans never forgot that their northern neighbors
tore away about ½ of their country
• Marked an ugly turning point in relations between
the United States and Latin America.
XIV. Profit and Loss in Mexico
(cont.)
• The war aroused the slavery issue that would not stop
until the Civil War
• David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a fateful
amendment that stipulated that slavery should never
exist in any of the territories to be wrested from
Mexico.
• The Wilmot Proviso never became federal law:
– It was endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free
states
– It came to symbolize the burning issue of slavery in the
territories
p374
p375
Map 17-4 p375
p376
p377